The “Veronica Mars” movie Kickstarter campaign was an instant, runaway success, raising the $2 million minimum to make the movie in under 12 hours, with the total continuing to climb. (It passed $3 million earlier this evening.) But the process to get to this point took much longer for the show’s creator, Rob Thomas. He had all but given up on getting a “Veronica” movie made, even cheaply – “Warner Bros. is typically in the business of making big-budget movies,” he explains. “‘Small’ for them is a $30 million movie, and I understand why the ‘Veronica Mars’ movie didn’t fit into that paradigm” – until his friend, Cotton Mather lead singer Robert Harrison, suggested he try Kickstarter.

That was more than a year ago, and Thomas came very very close to convincing Warner Bros. to give him permission to try it at the time, in hopes they would film during Kristen Bell’s hiatus after the first season of “House of Lies.” But studio executives backed off, preferring to have their attorneys go over the possibilities with a fine-toothed comb to ensure they weren’t exposing themselves to legal action by teaming with Kickstarter.

Finally, though, approval came, and then the money started to flow in, and the movie has already been greenlit by Warner Bros. The only questions now are how big the budget will be – keeping in mind that a percentage of the Kickstarter funding will go towards providing the posters, t-shirts, DVDs and other prizes that fans bid on – how many actors will be available to film in between when Bell is recovered from having her baby and when she has to report to work for “House of Lies” season 3, and other matters of scope.

I spoke with Thomas this afternoon about where the project stands now, what value there will be in fans continuing to donate, his response to criticism that fans shouldn’t have to be giving money to a big conglomerate like Warner Bros., and more.

How were you feeling Wednesday morning as you were waiting for the campaign to begin? What were your expectations for how successful it might be, and how long it would take to hit the target goal?

Rob Thomas: I have been stupidly optimistic. I have been preaching with such fervor about how big this is going to be. In talking to (fellow “Veronica Mars” producer) Joel Silver, who said, ‘Maybe we can put together a couple of million to make it; we won’t have to get fans online.’ I said, ‘It’s more than the money, it’s being out of the box. It’s the promotion that will come with it.’ I had this vision that people would really respond. Dan (Etheridge), my producing partner and I, were fantasizing that on Thursday, every writer/producer in town is going to be going to studios and going, ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’ It would be at least a mini-revolution. I was full of all this optimistic fervor about it. And then on Tuesday afternoon, Kristen and I released those little teasing tweets, and here’s the thing: there were probably a couple of hundred retweets, and probably some people were excited, but it was so much more tepid than I thought it was going to be that I went into a spiral. It was sort of unraveling me. I thought, ‘Oh, shit. If there’s even a whiff of a Veronica Mars movie, it’ll light up like a pinball. She has a million followers. It shouldn’t be 200 people that are RT’ing, it should be a couple thousand.’ So on Wednesday morning, I went from this crazy optimism to suddenly, incredibly concerned.

But even at my most wildly optimistic, I did not think we’d make 2 million in day one. There was no world for that. In my mind, I was thinking, ‘Oh, if if we could do 5 million, that would be great,’ but I thought even with that total, a good first week would would be a million and a half or 2 million. I was certainly hoping for more than our Kickstarter goal, and optimistic about it. But it still blew my mind, watching that total go up and up yesterday. There was nothing like it. I was on an endorphin high. My attention span was not longer than 4 seconds. Every tweet that was coming at me, every email, every phone call, watching that total go up, it’s the most mesmerized I’ve ever been by a computer screen. And there was a documentary film crew, making a film about the making of this movie and the campaign, in my face for 8 hours yesterday. So on top of that, I was also hyper-self-aware. It was one of the freakier days of my life.

When you started out on this project, the assumption was that Warner Bros. would not kick in any money for production, and that you would have to make it work on whatever you raised from Kickstarter. Has that changed at all, given the success and all the attention the campaign has received?

Rob Thomas: Warner Bros. has not promised us any amount of money. There is a chance where, if we needed something, and there wasn’t enough money in the budget, like one more actor deal, they’ve talked like they’re a partner, and (said) ‘We’ll make sure we’ll make a terrific movie.’ But there’s absolutely no doubt that the more money we make, the bigger and better movie it’s going to be. I just don’t think they would have let us make a cheap movie. I stop and think that if we had just made $2 million, after we paid for t-shirts and processing, it would have been a $1.4 million movie. That would’ve been really hard, and a really scaled-down movie. I don’t think we’re going to be in that position. Warner Bros., they’re certainly handling all the other big ticket expensive items, like distribution and promotion. So they’re pulling their share.

It sounds like you’ve made the calculations about how much it will cost to provide people with the t-shirts, the DVDs, etc., that they’ve paid for with their Kickstarter bids. I’ve seen some blog posts suggesting that that’s often a very big challenge for a large-scale, successful Kickstarter campaign. How on top of this are you guys? How prepared are you to make sure everyone gets what they paid for?

Rob Thomas: This is one of the ways that we are working hand-in-hand with Warner Bros. They are tracking costs on this, they’re dealing with fulfillment centers. I’m so happy that I am not having to track the profit margin of t-shirts. I get these things on reports: “At this price point, this is what we’ll spend on fulfillment, and this is how much we’ll actually make.” But fortunately, there are Warner Bros. project people who are helping us out with that.

Let’s talk about $2 million vs. $5 million vs. however high it goes. You’re still making money, but the pace has slowed since you hit the initial goal. How would you pitch it to people to encourage them to keep donating? What would be different about the movie you can make if the campaign were to end this second, as opposed to if it gets significantly higher over the remaining 29 days?

Rob Thomas: Here’s one example: There’s going to be a big high school reunion set piece in the middle of the movie. In my perfect version, there is a brawl that takes place there. A brawl is an expensive thing to shoot. That’s days of shooting. I shot a fight sequence in season 3 of the show, where Veronica was in a dorm room with the rapist. That sequence was 27 shots. One page took us an entire day of shooting. If the funding were to stop now, I promise you that that high school reunion will be “Terse words are exchanged.” It will be an argument between Veronica and others. And that’s fine. In some ways, that’s the bread and butter of “Veronica Mars.” We can make that work. But it would be more fun, it would feel more like a movie than a TV show, if we could have something bigger and cooler than that.

And what was the budget for an episode of the show?

Rob Thomas: It was $1.8 million.

So now that you’re at about $2.7 million as we discuss this, what’s your dream goal for the campaign?

Rob Thomas: It’s one of those questions where I think, ‘Only an asshole would answer that question.’ But I’ll be an asshole anyway! In my mind, I think that at $5 million, I start feeling like that’s the tipping point. And I’m not even basing that on what I think the budget of the movie could or should be, but on what my expectations and hopes were for the amount of money we could raise on Kickstarter. We put a bigger dent in that than I could have hoped for in the last two days. We’ll certainly spend that money. We’ll find cool stuff to do if we go over it.

The nice thing is that we never wanted to be perceived as a charity. We always imagined that we’re putting up a Kickstarter page, and we’re selling real product at real prices to fans. It’s not like a pledge drive where you pledge 100 dollars and get a 4 dollar tote bag, where it’s done out of the goodness of your heart, and for charity. We wanted to created packages where people look at what they’re getting and think, ‘Wow, I got a script and a digital download and a t-shirt for $35. I would pay that!’ So all those people worrying that we’re aksing for this money to make our movie, we’re selling you a product. Think of us as a store, not a charity. And I think it’s very above-board, what we’re doing here. It’s one of my hopes for why I think it can keep going, is that if you look on that website, you think, ‘Hey, t-shirt and a movie and a DVD and a script for $50, I’m in.’ Hey, I would sign up for the “Deadwood” version of this.

A lot of people are very excited about this, but others have been critical of it. They’re asking what business Warner Bros. has asking fans to give them money to make a movie, and saying that Kickstarter was meant for independent projects for people who don’t already have means or access.

Rob Thomas: We don’t have the means or the access to get the money any other way either. I’ve tried for a very long time to get “Veronica Mars” made by traditional means. Like those indie filmmakers, I also couldn’t get this financed through traditional channels. If I could have, I would have. I certainly tried very hard to do that. Like them, I am searching out an alternative method to getting my movie made. And I think the way to look at it is, all Warner Bros. is doing is pre-selling the product. I realize that people have an emotional reaction to “Veronica Mars,” and one I’m grateful for, but we’re trying to give good value for the money. We’re asking you to pre-buy the products to prove to the studio that there can be money made. If they sold you the t-shirt and download later, they’re making profit then. No one cares that they’re making profit then. This just ensures the interest level. And I think “Veronica Mars” fans have proved there’s enough interest to make this size of a movie viable for them.

For tens of thousands of people who care about this project, you’ve already sold them a copy of the movie, in one format or another. How much concern is there for you, or for Warner Bros., that by the time the Kickstarter campaign is over, everyone who’s interested in seeing the movie will have already paid for a version of it?

Rob Thomas: I think the hope – and I don’t want to say there’s not concern on that – is that these “Veronica Mars” fans are still going to enjoy, if it’s playing in their area, going to the movie theater and watching it with a crowd. Things that I’m a big fan of, I enjoy that experience, and we think that a lot of people, even if they pre-paid for a digital download of the movie, we hope they are still going to want to go to a theater and see it. But more to the point, it’s okay if, to a degree, that’s the case, and I’m sure it will be to some degree. I hope it’s small. The upside and the way I view it – and the way that, to a degree, Warner Bros. views it – is all we’ve done is sold it to you before we made it. We’re okay with that.

Is the entirety of the Kickstarter money going to production and to fulfillment? If the campaign gets high enough, is there a chance any of it would be left over?

Rob Thomas: No. Kickstarter money will not exist beyond the cost of the movie. All of your high-end rewards – the speaking role, naming a character, the private screening in your hometown – were already snapped up. I know you’ve said you want to add more of those, but how quickly will that happen?

Rob Thomas: I think it’s going to happen fairly quickly. There are certain things we want to open up today, or else tomorrow. (NOTE: After we spoke, the campaign announced additional premiere events in New York and Austin, as well as more spots for background extras.) We know we need to get some more higher-end items in there. Although from the beginning, we’ve structured it with the belief that the bread and butter of the campaign will live and die at the $35 and $50 level. Those are the price points that the bulk of the backers will pledge at. That has proved pretty true, I think. Those other ideas are fun, and they keep people talking, but I don’t think that’s where the bulk of our money If you did a diagram of where our money is coming from, it’s in those $35 and $50 tiers, and the rest are fun. That $10,000 for that speaking role is a drop in the bucket, but it’s been fun and there have been so many references to it in the press about the campaign.

Have you read the interview with the guy who bought the speaking role?

Rob Thomas: I did! It’s so intriguing that he’s not even a big “Veronica Mars” fan, but just a fan of Kickstarter in general.

Well, how much do you think you’re benefiting from people like that – from being the first show to try this at this level? What percentage of the donors would you guess are “Veronica Mars” fans, as opposed to people who either like the idea of the campaign or want this to succeed so their favorite show can try it?

Rob Thomas: I would be willing to be that it’s a tiny fraction of people that are donating to the “Veronica Mars” campaign because they hope their favorite show will also (be Kickstartered). There may be a few, but I don’t think that’s a big percentage.

Now that you know the film is going to happen, and that the budget won’t be the absolute minimum, how much do you know about who will be in it? How much of the band can you put back together?

Rob Thomas: Our desire is to get the (whole) band back together. We built it around the 10-year high school reunion so that it would be convenient, and I think that’s something that fans are yearning for. And also, this is a good gap. A lot of our people work largely in television, and we are firmly in network hiatus season. We’ll probably be wrapping just as shows are going back to work, which was very intentional as well. We think we’re going to be pretty successful.

If it’s the high school reunion, does that mean no Piz and no Parker?

Rob Thomas: No, actually, in the outline – and (the script’s) not written – they both appear. That’s no guarantee that they will. We don’t have those actors in contracts, but I hope for both of them to be in there. In the outline, they both appear.

So do you basically have plans for every significant character, if in theory you can get them? Or does it become unwieldy at a certain point?

Rob Thomas: Or if they didn’t die. Ryan Devlin, who played our rapist in season 3, is one of my favorite actors, but I don’t think I could explain away how he got out of prison. Though Ryan did send me an entire pitch from his dad on how he got out on good behavior.

Frankly, I want to see Corny in the show, I want to see Madison Sinclair in the show. There was a real internal debate, for me, about what kind of movie I wanted to make. Just by way of example, I really enjoyed “Side Effects,” and that sort of noir thriller that I could see Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars in something like that. I liked the plotting of that movie. I had some desire, as a filmmaker, to take Veronica in a slightly new direction and do something adventurous with her. Or, there’s the “give the people what they want” version. And I think partly because it’s crowd-sourced, I’m going with the “give the people what they want” version. It’s going to be Veronica being Veronica, and the characters you know and love. Certainly, I think I can make a fun, great movie out of that, and I’m excited about that, but it was a creative debate I had with myself, and I finally made the decision that I’m happy with it, to go with, “Let’s not piss people off who all donated. Let’s give them the stuff that I think that they want in the movie.”

And I take it that in this version of things, Veronica never went into the FBI?

Rob Thomas: That’s correct.

So you just view that as something you pitched the CW to keep the show on the air?

Rob Thomas: Right. That exists in an alternative universe.

Getting back to the idea of other producers going to their studios to see if they can’t try this, what have you heard in the last 36 hours from colleagues in the business about this? And how much do you think the instant success of this will influence another studio’s willingness to follow in your footsteps?

Rob Thomas: I did get an email from Bryan Fuller earlier today saying, ‘Hey, can you jump on the phone with me at some point? I know you’re busy, but I would love to talk to you about how this thing works.’ And I know it was specifically for “Pushing Daisies.” I heard that, and of course I saw your retweet of the Shawn Ryan thing.

I know, on the second part of the question, that Warner Bros. isn’t treating “Veronica Mars” like a one-off. I think they’re treating us like a guinea pig – in the best way. They want to see if this model works, and they made the calculated decision, and for a lot of the reasons you articulated in that story, that we were a good test case for this. We just happened to be the right show at the right time, got to be the first one out of the gate. I think Warner Bros., if t works, it works, and they could start doing more of these. And you know that if it works at one studio, that they’re not going to be the only studio in town that will be trying it.

It took more than a year to finally put this together. Do you think that whoever tries it next – whether at Warner Bros. or with another studio – will have an easier time getting it approved?

Rob Thomas: Oh, absolutely. But the year that it went dormant is the best thing that could’ve happened. Because in these last few months where we thought, ‘It’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,’ I would say I’ve been on the phone for hundreds of hours, sent thousands of emails. We had our ducks in a row this year that we would not have last year. Those rewards were vetted like the State of the Union Address. That rewards package went through 40 drafts. It got to the point where I couldn’t even look at it. It was just like a gray, blank piece of paper. I stared at it like no other script that I have seen in my life. Everybody needed a crack at it, just like the State of the Union: Defense wants to look at it, Interior. Everyone had to sign off on it, and had comments. Had we launched last year, I think we would have been flying blind, and it would’ve been a disaster. When I first had the idea, I brought that in, wanting an answer right away, because of Kristen’s schedule, and I think they needed to get their ducks in a row, as well.

I think what they’re doing is brave, and I know there are some voices out there being critical of them. But who doesn’t want to see more movies in this price range? These movies have been dying over the last several years. So many fewer that land in this $4 or $5 million price range; this may be a way we get to see more. I think it takes a brave executive to say, “Hey, let’s try a new business model.” And trust me: they know, they’ve geared themselves up for potential criticism, but I think they’re doing something great for movie fans.

Well I think it’s clear that Party Down will be catering the 10 year reunion. Ron Donald has a thing for them.

Ryan Hansen gets to stretch his acting chops playing two roles. Adam Scott will also play two roles. First as Henry but also as the lecherous Mr. Rooks (he and Madison Sinclair hit it off three years ago and are now married).

By: SCT

03.15.2013 @ 1:20 PM

Well I think it’s clear that Party Down will be catering the 10 year reunion. Ron Donald has a thing for them.

Ryan Hansen gets to stretch his acting chops playing two roles. Adam Scott will also play two roles. First as Henry but also as the lecherous Mr. Rooks (he and Madison Sinclair hit it off three years ago and are now married).

By: Col Bat Guano

03.15.2013 @ 5:09 PM

I would watch the hell out of a Veronica Mars reunion catered by Party Down.

By: Ian Whitcombe

03.15.2013 @ 5:05 AM

I wonder how much of the movie will be confined to the reunion setting? Not a bad thing for three reasons:

1) It could allow an Altman-esque approach in juggling all the returning characters.

2) “A Very Echoll’s Christmas” is similarly claustrophobic at the end, and one of the shows best episodes.

3) Thomas may be deliberately using the storytelling structure he and his fellow writers developed on Party Down.

By: ovnio

03.15.2013 @ 5:11 AM

Excellent interview, Alan. This is must-read material for all the naysayers and people freaking out all around.

If they figure out a way to do international rewards, I’d imagine they’d easily break five million.

By: Amy

03.15.2013 @ 5:43 AM

I agree with this. I donated even though I’m not going to get the rewards (I’m in Canada), but I’d up my donation if I could actually get some stuff.

I love the reunion idea. Two of my very favorite episodes — An Echolls Family Christmas and A Trip to the Dentist — used a party setting to great effect. See also: every episode of Party Down.

By: XK

03.15.2013 @ 5:52 AM

Agreed, re: international donors. Honestly, I’m not sure what the issue is; most kickstarters do handle physical rewards for international donors… by adding tiers with slightly higher price-points to take into account the increased shipping.

So, they could basically add new reward tiers that mirror the existing physical reward tiers, (not counting the screenings, etc. where the extra cost would far exceed just a difference in shipping), up the cost by ~$10 for each tier, and clearly mark that those tiers are for international peeps due to shipping costs.

Oh, and I think if they did so, they would very easily add another 1M, just via new international donors and existing donors upping their amounts. The comments section is certainly full of backers who are international and say they would happily increase their kickstarter amounts if they could get the physical rewards.

By: brickwalls

03.15.2013 @ 6:08 AM

Rob said in the FAQ that shipping isn’t the issue. ” We’ve run into a couple thorny issues. It’s not about the shipping cost. If it were that easy, we’d already be doing it.” It probably has to do with distribution rights and liabilities.

By: XK

03.15.2013 @ 7:23 AM

Thanks, Brickwalls. I’d love to hear what the issue actually is. Again, most kickstarters don’t seem to have any issues on this front.

Then again, it sounds like it took them many months just to get all the legalese figured out to begin the kickstarter in the first place, so I guess there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.

By: LULU

03.15.2013 @ 10:23 AM

I would guess there might be issues in countries (like France) where the movie theater lobby forces to have a relatively long delay between theatrical release and any other DVD / VOD / … release.

Meaning in that case that the movie might be difficult to release in theaters if it was released as a VOD product beforehand (or too soon after).

By: Beren

03.15.2013 @ 11:04 AM

I remember here in Australia they had a lot of trouble releasing the season 1-3 dvds. We didn’t get them until a couple of years ago (well after the show ended). Not sure the reason, but perhaps they are having similar issues now.

By: LoopyChew

03.15.2013 @ 12:12 PM

My guess is that the issues stem from international releases. The Digital release is being done via Flixster (according to the KS page), which is a US-only service. They’d have to find international equivalents for that when it comes to the film. As for things like shirts, maybe their fulfillment partners don’t have international distro agreements or something (kinda weird when you consider it’s WB, but still).

By: sauloccl

03.15.2013 @ 12:26 PM

In Brazil, Warner still needs to release the second and third series on DVD.
They should do an airport scene where non-Americans could appear. Don’t know how much it would cost them, but I believe a lot of international fans would donate a lot of money to be part of such a special project. It would be a nice reward, so they just don’t need to receive a copy of the movie.

By: brickwalls

03.15.2013 @ 8:36 PM

My guess is that Rob Thomas and Warner Brothers underestimated the number of international fans. When they made the agreement to launch the project, they only focused distributing the movie downloads and DVD/Blue Rays in the US.

In order to make this work for international fans, the WB has to find partners to offer movie downloads in each country and they have to make DVDs encoded for different regions. All that takes time and money. I’m guessing there is a chance that the WB might decide not to pursue international options if they think that the cost outweighs the potential profits.

By: Amy

03.17.2013 @ 1:34 AM

As promised, I’ve doubled my donation now that Canadians can get the physical rewards! I hope they are able to offer them to other countries as well.

By: Tiffany

03.15.2013 @ 5:43 AM

Pushing Daisies was my first thought when I heard this was happening. Please let it happen!!

By: Dezbot

03.15.2013 @ 4:50 PM

That and CHUCK :-)

By: joel

03.15.2013 @ 5:02 PM

I can’t believe a typical ep of Veronica Mars cost $1.8 mil to shoot. If that’s typical relative to the production, an ep of Pushing Daisies must have been twice that. PD had insanely high production values for a TV series. Does anyone know the price tag?

By: MC

03.15.2013 @ 10:20 PM

Joel: Veronica Mars may have cost more because they spent a lot of time shooting on location (think of all the outdoors scenes, the school, etc.), whereas I think Pushing Daisies was mostly done on a set?

However, this is just a guess and I could be completely wrong.

By: joel

03.15.2013 @ 10:36 PM

Shooting on location isn’t necessarily expensive, depending on how you do it. The X-files and Friday Night Lights are two series that made good use of location shooting on a tight budget, but location shooting in LA would be a lot more expensive.

Pushing Daisies had incredibly elaborate sets, props, costumes, and make-up. And virtually every episode required entirely new sets and costumes to accommodate all the episodic storytelling. Granted, the used a lot of CGI and digital matte painting to complete the effects, but again, that isn’t cheap.

By: CinemaPsycho

03.15.2013 @ 5:51 AM

VERONICA MARS, bitches. Awwww, YEAH.

Almost a decade later, the fans still care. And we just proved ourselves to be the BEST FANS EVER.

Put up or SHUT UP, motherfuckers.

By: Brian Toohey

03.15.2013 @ 6:33 AM

For the last decade, big-budget filmmaking has continued to balloon, while the indie has all but ceased to exist. I feel like the death of the indie started with the success of Pulp Fiction and the exploitation of Sundance; as time went on, indies took over the Academy Awards, but all of this meant that indies began having casts of recognizable actors and $30 million budgets. The low-range had become the mid-range, the high-range had become the mega-high range, and the low-range and truly indie all but ceased to exist.

In a world where literature is able to exist on many different level and find its audience without having to be a best-seller to even exist, I’ve always thought, and hoped, that eventually things could circle back for films. We’re certainly at a point where anyone can make a film with the technology available to the average consumer, and the internet has broken down both the walls of education and distribution. But there’s still currently the problem of funding.

While everyone is bemoaning this because they think Warners is abusing Kickstarter, and they’re afraid that this may become a wave of the future, the fact remains that Kickstarter won’t work unless people give the campaigns their money. I hope there aren’t so many rich sheep out there that they’ll just blindly give their money to every film project. But if it’s a film that people want to see, why shouldn’t that film get made at a budget appropriate for the audience? All people have to do if pledge money to a Kickstarter for a project that excites them, and vote no with their wallets when something doesn’t. End of story.

But I think what’s more interesting, once the dust settles, is how this will play out as a solution for the true independent film-maker. I don’t think studios will want to waste the time or hassle with this model for films beyond a certain budget. But I think films with a budget targeted and a few million, and even much cheaper, more independent films, could really benefit from the groundwork being laid. This could be an important first step in the continually evolving development model, and a way for the next wave of independent filmmakers to help finance their fledgling projects on a similar (or even smaller) scale.

By: joel

03.15.2013 @ 5:13 PM

Indies haven’t ceased to exist. It’s harder to get indies into the mainstream theaters because distribution has changed, but the audiences that used to frequent these films isn’t going to mainstream theaters as much these days anyway. It’s actually easier to make and distribute indie films via online channels than it ever has been.

It’s true that many of the smaller studios that produced and distributed films in the traditional system have disappeared, and the studios have pulled back on their “art house” production arms. It’s also true that the studios aren’t making smaller, adult-focused films as much as they used to.

But indie is doing pretty well. It’s just not the indie film system we had in the past. The internet and digital film making has changed all of that, and would have changed all of that whether the smaller studios still existed or not.

By: SecretHandshake

03.15.2013 @ 6:48 AM

Congratulations to the Veronica Mars team! If you’re listening Bryan Fuller, you should definitely make a Pushing Daisies movie, but please don’t forget about Wonderfalls! In fact, make Wonderfalls The Movie first, then go for Pushing Daisies (Push Harder). If they won’t let you bring the shows back, make movies. Each episode of those 2 series were like short, perfect movies – sad and bittersweet when it came to the last frame, but always leaving the lingering warm glow of satisfaction. It’s awesome to have the dvd sets, but man, I was not done with those characters, stories and fantastic places.

What I started thinking about is a bit smaller than crowdfunding new content. I want some older, less popular TV shows (80s-early 2000s) to be released to DVD. Assuming a perceived lack of purchasers was the issue with certain shows (as opposed to content rights), would something kickstarter-esque be a path to get some older, niche-y shows released? Say I put up $40 and if the project funds, the reward is a copy of the DVDs I want…

(I’m still annoyed they never released the final season of Once & Again.)

By: marc

03.15.2013 @ 8:02 AM

yes, i’d gladly chip in for my RUBICON and TERRIERS DVDs!

By: toonsterwu

03.15.2013 @ 8:15 AM

Pushing Daisies would be fun. Always thought that it wasn’t the best fit, stylistically, on network television. That said, didn’t they give it a nice bow on the end? Off the top, I thought they did.

Still, it’s the type of story that they could find a million and one ways to come up with something creative to do, or even “reboot” it.

By: Heather

03.15.2013 @ 12:19 PM

Really excellent article! I’m so happy for this fan base. I’m sick of people saying that Warner Bros could make the movie, I wonder if any of those people ask any one who
Pledged if the regret it. The answer would be a resounding NO! To me this is no different then buying a ticket to see a concert, or a play, or a favorite bands album, I’m getting something I want for my money! Thank you Rob and all for this chance to see our beloved characters live again!

By: Ashley

03.15.2013 @ 6:37 PM

As I recall, Pushing Daisies literally ended on a cliffhanger, with Kristin Chenowith’s character hanging off of a cliff. They didn’t finish their whole season because the writers’ strike interfered, and then they weren’t renewed.

By: Riley

03.17.2013 @ 4:15 PM

“Pushing Daisies literally ended on a cliffhanger, with Kristin Chenowith’s character hanging off of a cliff.”

No, this was episode 10 of season 2, there were a few more episodes after. The actual finalé was a voice-over which Fuller managed to get financed. It gave a small amount of closure to one storyline, but left everything else hanging… like the mystery of Ned’s father, the watches, what is Ned’s surname, how will he and Chuck find happiness when they can’t touch, Emerson and his daughter… all of these were unresolved.

By: VM superfan

03.15.2013 @ 1:10 PM

Since the fans are paying for a large chunk of this movie, why not send out a survey and ask them what they want? I personally would like to see Veronica Mars as a young FBI agent…who also goes to her class reunion!

By: Valeria

03.15.2013 @ 1:31 PM

No Piz and No Parker! Please. No one liked them. Just give us LoVe.

By: LERETC

03.15.2013 @ 9:49 PM

I liked Piz, he was alright.

By: John

03.15.2013 @ 10:29 PM

Look, as long as Jason Dohering, Tina Majorino, and Enrico Colantoni are in this thing, Rob Thomas can do whatever the heck he wants.

By: whatsername

04.05.2013 @ 4:34 PM

“No one liked them.” I’m sorry but 1 person doesn’t equate to no one. Get over yourself.

I loved Piz so I really hope he’s in the movie and still with Veronica. I don’t care if Parker is in the movie or not.

By: tigger500

03.15.2013 @ 2:30 PM

Probably unlikely, but I’d like to see Jackie.

By: JOE

03.15.2013 @ 9:28 PM

Vinnie should probably show up too, if for nothing else than the possible Ben Stiller blank check.

By: Probably Not as Funny as I think I am

03.15.2013 @ 2:32 PM

Jason Dohring made another Kickstarter movie, “Searching for Sonny”. [www.kickstarter.com] (Not a great movie, but I’m sure that the fan support for that particular actor—who had rabid fans—did not go unnoticed.

And KBell’s pregnancy—you gotta wonder how that went down. (Sorry, this is prurient speculation.) “Hey, Kristen, looks like we’re not going to be able to launch the Kickstarter until the 2013 hiatus.” “Dax, honey, let’s get cracking. This baby’s gotta pop by May!” Then there’s a phone call to ‘House of Lies’. “Dudes, get ready fire up the CGI machine for my sex scenes, and get those granny panties, stat!”

I’m pretty psyched for the movie. If I’d been at a computer when the NYC premiere rewards were added, I might have gone for it, but instead I opted for the $35 sweet spot. However, I really wish they wouldn’t waste budget on Piz and Parker. If this was a $30 million movie, sure, I could live with it, but why polarize the fan base?

By: Mark

03.15.2013 @ 2:34 PM

There needs to be a Sheriff Lamb appearance, whether in flashback or a scene from a VHS tape in the 10-year reunion time capsule.

By: hemo_jr

03.15.2013 @ 4:35 PM

Movie studios have the worst reputation in the world for their shady accounting practices. I am glad that Warner Bros seems to actually want to develop this funding model. Otherwise, they would be milking this particular instance for all it’s worth.

Still, who gets credited for the investment equity of all the fans’ pledges? When I pledged, I was thinking it was Rob Thomas. But the money goes into a Warner Bros account and they handle the distribution of rewards. So my guess they are considering it their money and their investment equity, not Rob’s. And this kinda pisses me off. I have no love for the big studios who push everyone around and do their best to stack the deck in their favor, no matter whose rights they step on.

By: joel

03.15.2013 @ 5:19 PM

Warner Bros probably outright owns the rights to the entire Veronica Mars IP, hence they would own this process too. That’s just the way it is.

By: eirenical

03.15.2013 @ 8:16 PM

I wonder if this will have a greater impact on how writers like Rob Thomas negotiate for their IP. Will they negotiate for rights to revert to the writer after a certain period of time off the air?

By: Ashley

03.15.2013 @ 6:40 PM

Alan, thank you so much for this interview. It’s a combination of fanlove for the show, and interesting speculation about a new business model. I personally cannot wait for the tshirt and digital copy of the movie that my $25 buys me, and I will absolutely go see it in the theater. I’m also hoping they film in Oceanside (the stand-in for Neptune in the series,) because that’s where I live!

By: pauline

03.15.2013 @ 7:07 PM

Let’s go for 5 millions people, let’s do it for a great movie (and i would not mind Sheriff Lamb on flashbacks..he is dead i know..Rob !)

By: pauline

03.15.2013 @ 7:09 PM

Let’s go for 5 millions people, let’s do it for a great movie ! (and i would not mind Sheriff Lamb on flashbacks..i know he is dead..but a little appearance would be cool Rob) !!

By: Erika Herzog

03.16.2013 @ 2:29 AM

can someone explain to me how it costs $600,000 to do t-shirts and DVDs. i understand it is for a lot of people but honestly this amount seems really crazy high. get some fans together for watching parties and have them process all the merch, via crowd-sourcing. this seems insane.

By: Eric

03.16.2013 @ 1:26 PM

It’s not too hard to do the math. I don’t have the numbers from when they hit 2 million exactly, but we can look at the Kickstarter page today:

– roughly 20000 backers get a t-shirt
– 12231 get the t-shirt and DVD
– 1031 get the t-shirt, DVD and poster
– 4502 get the t-shirt, poster, and a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack
– 732 get the above plus all three seasons of the show on DVD
– 2214 get the above stuff with signatures, minus the show DVDs
– 485 get the above stuff with signatures and the show DVDs
– roughly 900 get all the above stuff except the show DVDs and then the more extravagant rewards like personalized voicemails, etc.

I excluded or consolidated levels where people only get digital rewards.

…being shipped to 56320 people. If your average shipping cost per package is $3.00 you’ve already spent $170,000 without manufacturing a single thing or paying someone to pack it. And that’s probably a low estimate even using media mail and bulk shipping rates; it costs nearly that much to ship one DVD, let alone a DVD and t-shirt and whatever else. The manufacturing costs on all these items are obviously a big question mark, but estimating on the very low end at something like 50 cents per DVD, 2.00 per shirt, 2.00 per combo pack, and 4.00 for the show DVDs, you just spent another 140,000. You’re now over 400,000 without yet spending a penny to pay the small army of people it will take to ship all this stuff as well as handling a pretty massive digital fulfillment program, not to mention the well-compensated folks who do the DVD and Blu-Ray transfers, program the menus, etc.

By: Eric

03.16.2013 @ 1:29 PM

Also, I seriously doubt they’re going to crowd-source their distribution to approx. 40000 paying customers. If you want to see a Kickstarter campaign give all subsequent campaigns a bad reputation, that’s probably a good way to get started.

By: Erika Herzog

03.16.2013 @ 3:17 PM

thank you for crunching these numbers for my pea brain.

i think this is the hidden cost of Kickstarter. i think they should have reconsidered the prizes, and made them digital (i.e., PDFs of scripts, streamed or emailed videos) to reduce these costs. these layouts reduce margin too much, are a bad idea.

i am also suspecting that if a company like Warner Bros. is involved — histories of wonky bookkeeping — the fulfillment arm is going to be very costly.

i buy merch from bands all the time (call me a chump but i still buy physical product and merch to support music i love) and some are shipping the stuff themselves. some use distribution channels and the costs get CRAZY high. to the point of equalling the cost of the merch.

i am skeptical of all of this in a low budget film model. i understand from what you figured out the numbers are staggering but i still think it could be done cheap and easy.

i don’t know i would like to see the money up on the screen, if the budget is going to be this low.

erika

By: Moshi

03.16.2013 @ 7:46 AM

NOOOOO!!!!!!! No Piz and no Parker!!!!!!!!
Just the old gang!!!!!!

By: vc

03.16.2013 @ 8:05 AM

Great interview! I’ve enjoyed the level of transparency given in this kickstarter. I just wanted to add that as long as it’s good, I don’t mind so much the “giving people what they want.” As long as it’s good, let all the bad things happen. (Honestly, I think Logan dying could make for something really interesting. Kind of bummed that it’s not a possibility.)